Big Beaten Hearts Week

Huge week.  Rehearsals every day and we opened on Thursday night to a full house, lots of laughs and rapturous applause.  I really couldn't be happier or prouder.  Then in the blink of an eye we sold out Friday and Saturday nights too!  Beaten Hearts is a special show; for a start we have great, smart, witty scripts; add an ensemble of versatile actors and mix with an excellent director and fabulous choreographer (who also happens to be a Tony Award winner!); stir in a talented young lighting designer, a charming and intimate venue, and a sexy publicity image and bing bang boom we have a winner.  I always had confidence in the show, but didn't know how it would be received in Hollywood, the land of TV, film and short attention spans.  To sell out the first three shows has exceeded my expectations.  Now of course I expect to sell out the next three shows.

http://www.examiner.com/x-40043-Burbank--Pop-Culture-Examiner~y2010m4d29-Beaten-Hearts-Opens-at-the-Sidewalk-Studio-Theater

As you see, we got some local press and on Friday night we had a reviewer in from one of the local papers.  Unfortunately, on Friday we also had a persistent, high-pitched beeping noise through the entire show.  It was most annoying and quite distracting, especially during the quieter moments (not that there's many of those) and we simply couldn't figure out what was causing it.  The best theory is that it was someone's hearing aid; a delicious irony as apparently it's owner couldn't hear the beeping.  Anyway, all clear on Saturday night when we had a bumper crowd (Cindy, our divine director, sacrificed her seat for a paying customer and instead stood at the back) and we can't wait to jump back onstage next week.  One of the biggest compliments I've had from a number of people (apart from praise for the writing and overall execution of the show) is how good my Australian accent is.  That's right, my American accent was so convincing (I adopt it in 3 out of the 4 plays I appear in) that they assumed I was American!  It wasn't until they spoke to me after the show and a look of surprise flashed across their faces as they realised I'm an Aussie - they obviously hadn't read the programme!

The biggest drama of the week, however, had nothing to do with a high-pitched beep, although I was close to emitting something like it when my laptop suddenly came under attack from a virus just two days before the show opened.  Watch out for Drew's script-o-rama, folks.  It's a site I've visited before, looking for movie scripts and monologues, but I'll never go there again.  You have been warned.  Yes, I have a virus protection program, but these trojan bastards got through.  I've never been under attack like this before; my computer went ballistic with window after window popping up, a series of warnings and recommendations to download this or that virus protector, error messages declaring it impossible to perform such an action, and scary "you have violated copyright" messages.  Some of the words in some of these windows and warnings were misspelt, a sure sign they were not to be trusted.  Meanwhile, my computer desktop got flooded with links to porn sites, the colour changed to black & white and crime scene tape was emblazoned across the whole mess.  I freaked out just thinking about having to recreate the programme for the show, let alone all the other vital information, documents, photos and so forth that are stored in my little pink laptop's memory.  I called James, one of the actors in Beaten Hearts, and a man of many talents.  I brought my poor little PC to his house - and he fixed it!  Miraculous!  And then Alex and her sister cooked dinner and they fed me.  And then we watched an episode of United States of Tara (starring the amazing Toni Colette) and all was right with the world once again.

After three kick-ass shows, the computer panic seems like a distant memory.  This afternoon I auditioned for a short film, which went pretty well I think.  In other news, the hunt for a roommate continues.  Gina will be moving out within the week, so we are both hopeful of finding someone suitable in the next couple of days!  We've had a few people look at the room, but out of two we liked one flaked completely and the other found something else; another guy came to look and he's a possibility but I'd prefer another girl so fingers crossed for someone fabulous this week! Oh, and I've applied for what looks like the PERFECT part-time job proofreading business and technical writing for "a large entertainment company" - fingers and toes crossed, people!